Petit painter

Centaur archer
28mm

In a fit of anti-materialism I asked for nothing for Christmas, so Painting Agency won't be featuring the popular "seasonal haul" type post.  But... this happened!

She asked for some "little men", and we got her two Nolzur's minis and her own #2 brush.  To say I'm proud is an understatement :D

Gaslands Jet Set

Gaslands cars
approx. 20mm scale

Raise the sights, the city lights are calling
We're hot tonight, the time is right, there's nitro in the air
In the street is where we'll meet, we're warning
On the beat, we won't retreat, beware

Thousands of cars and a million guitars
Screaming with power in the air
We've found the place where the decibels race
This army of rock will be there

"Go Fasta"

"Hornet":

I don't play Gaslands, but a few things came together and prompted me to have a go at this thrifty flavour of post-apocalyptic modeling.  Over at Sho3box, he's been Gasland-ing the entire Hot Wheels holiday calendar one day at a time... couple that with me being out toy shopping for Christmas, and it was pretty much inevitable.

To try and have a bit of a theme, I picked up two cars with a little... extra in the propulsion department: the "Custom El Camino" and the "2 Jet Z". Sho3box's quick and surprisingly effective conversion protocol leaves the original paintjob intact and adds weathering, but since both these cars lacked colour, I primed and totally repainted them.  Weapons and other additions are from my bitz box (though conversion sprues are available). Results: very satisfactory.  Ready to go hunting in the wastelands!

We have the apocalypse in Ontario, too ;D

(The road signs are from the Ontario government Driver's Handbook website, printed to suitable size. So easy!)

Spectral Sidekick

Orko
28 mm scale

While his magical abilities are notoriously inept, the Trollan creature known as Orko does often aid Eternia's defenders with his bravery, and by producing a shocking array of useful items from beneath his mysterious hat.

Orko was a surprise bonus figure included in my order from Quest Miniatures.  I gave him a bit of a mysterious "Jawa" look here :)

Festive Freebooters

Holiday smugglers
15 mm

Sandy "Claus" Klosowicz and her colleague "Elf" are some of the best smugglers in human space.  While they do work for profit, some of their most legendary runs have been humanitarian missions on behalf of aid and relief organizations.  Their delivery of tons of military-grade peptide bars and medical nanites is believed to have saved thousands during the pirate blockade of Hydra 357 Prime.  Many children, and their parents, at struggling bare-bones colony outposts dream of seeing these folk heroes' freighter landing one day, bringing supplies, food and even small luxuries from the core worlds.

Sandy and Elf are Ion Age figures from Alternative Armies.

Some dropoffs can get a bit hairy...

Harry Cryptid

Bigfoot
28mm scale*

Bigfoot, or the sasquatch, is one of the best-known North American "cryptids" or animals that are claimed but not proven to exist.  Almost everyone has probably seen the classic photo, which is a still from the "Patterson-Gimlin film" supposedly showing a large ape-like bipedal creature walking along a river gorge.

Totally not a guy in a rented gorilla suit.

The creature is an American icon, appearing in countless media and with statues showing up in countless parks, businesses, and tourist attractions. It's even made forays into politics.  As for whether it truly exists or not, according to well-known primatologist Jane Goodall, "maybe they don't exist, but I want them to"... which is good enough for me.

"They told me you were all right, Jane."

This Bears Head Miniatures figure is a great version, nicely combining the loping gait of the classic imagery with a slightly more human-like "Harry and the Hendersons" style face and hands. 

(* At 55mm tall, its scale may depend on exactly how BIG you think Bigfoot should be...)

Ossuary Overlord

Skeletor
28 mm

Dust rise, right on over my time
Empty fossil of the new scene
I feel so alone
Gonna end up a big ole pile of them bones

Skeletor... The most villainous, if not the most competent, villain in all of Eternia!  Is he a lich?  A necromancer?  A demon?  A guy wearing a mask?  Nobody knows for sure... But he will not stop his evil plotting until the most potent magic of all - the power of Castle Greyskull - is his to command!

Skeletor is a Quest Miniatures MOTU figure. I modified his booted feet to bare ones, and gave him bracers to reinforce a somewhat sketchy pinning job on his left wrist.

"Uh... I guess you've been going to the gym."

There's so much I could say about this guy... but really, he speaks for himself...

Hasty pudding

Gelatinous Cube
28mm scale


So it was election night in Canada, and I could have spent the evening anxiously glued to my laptop waiting for the latest scraps of data... but instead I spent it doing a quick, fun hobby project! 

At work we ran some small plastic media bottles through the hot dishwasher... they did not like it, producing what us scientists like to call "autoclave art":

This could have merely been a funny desk decoration, but I had other ideas.  I sawed one in half:

Made a cheap base out of cork, with dungeon stones painted on with a piece of sponge:

Glued a few shoddily-painted skulls and a spare sword to the inside surface, and tada!

A pretty decent, though smallish, version of the classic D&D Gelatinous Cube!  It's perhaps not going to win any hobby contests, but I'm happy with it!  And it's nice to have a project come together so spontaneously after painstakingly painting up Narthoks the Beholder...

"Looks like it already found those bandits we met earlier..."

Enter the Beholder-verse

Narthoks the Terrible
28mm scale

Burning cities
And napalm skies
Fifteen flares inside those ocean eyes

An arch-villain, an overlord, a mercenary, a destroyer, a monster... Narthoks is all of these things.  Floating through space takes on new meaning when the floater is a 2m-wide highly intelligent creature with a taste for carnage, pillage, and devouring sapient flesh.  Heavily armed and utterly ruthless, Narthoks bears the scars of past battles but only becomes more dangerous with each bloody encounter.

Narthoks is a Bears Head miniature... in my opinion the most spectacular character Phillip has created so far!  I made a few conversions: swapping his club for a vintage chainsword, replacing his round grenade, and adding a claw to his tech-tentacle.

"Going somewhere, human?"

Glamorous Guardian

Teela
28 mm

Warrior girl only goes to where she wants to
Warrior girl maybe has a heavy sword
Warrior girl has no idea where she jumps to
But she jumps to where she wants to
And she's never, ever bored

The brave and loyal but sometimes headstrong Teela is the Captain of the Eternian Royal Guard.  The adopted daughter of Duncan, the Man-At-Arms, she is in fact the secret child of Teela-Na, the Sorceress of Castle Greyskull.

This Quest Miniatures figure really captures the cheesy 1980's-ness of the character, charging into battle in her up-do, white swimsuit and high heels.  As one does.  The shield that came with her was quite large, which I remedied by making a copy using Instant Mold and replicating only the central boss with greenstuff, to give her a buckler more suitable for a lightly-armored warrior.

"Bring Your Daughter to Work Day"

"Uh... I'm sure that cat wasn't anybody's pet."

The Number of the Beast

Beastman
28 mm

Call me the Manimal
That's what I am
Call me the Manimal,
Half beast half man

Beastman is one of Skeletor's closest and most loyal henchmen, able to command wild creatures of Eternia to aid Skeletor's schemes. But sometimes he chafes under his lord's harsh command and covets power of his own...  A Quest Miniatures MOTU figure.

"Ragggh! You think big club make warrior?" "Guess we'll find out!"

Stalwart soldier

Man-at-Arms
28 mm

Wife and kids, household pet
Army green was no safe bet

Duncan, the Man-At-Arms, advises the crown of Eternia on matters of war and security, but he's also ready to wade into battle swinging his huge mace.  He's the adopted father of the female warrior Teela.

This is another "Masters of the Universe" character from Quest Miniatures.  It was an interesting chance to work with a colour scheme I probably wouldn't have chosen myself.  Looking at this figure now makes me realize how much those colours make him resemble "Strontium Dog" character Johnny Alpha...

Ethereal Eternian

The Sorceress of Castle Greyskull
28 mm

Eternia... a strange land of mighty heroes, where mystical forces and arcane technology coexist.  A land in peril from the perpetual plans of the forces of evil...  One of its most powerful protectors is a mysterious Sorceress, who resides in the ancient Castle Greyskull.

The sorceress is, obviously, a character from "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe", a toy line and cartoon that I, like many North American kids, enjoyed in the 1980's.  I was thrilled to find that Quest Miniatures produces a number of excellent MOTU figures.

The "light " photo might be better... I always struggle with this stuff.

I didn't follow the "canon" look for her exactly, but I think the result was a bit more dramatic in contrast between the front and back of the figure.

Readers may remember I posted a while back about some amazing 80's nostalgia figures I found... including these ones.  In a moment of weakness, I bought the entire set of MOTU core heroes and villains from Quest.  "Man-At-Arms" is next on the painting queue:

Upcycled tribal terrain

So at work, we recently started receiving solvent bottles in paper fiber packing, replacing styrofoam.  Huge environmental improvement aside, this immediately gave me ideas.  I knew that something could be done with them.

I trimmed the top couple of inches off the "lid" piece:

... and voila!


Ikwen hogans
15 mm scale

Ikwen warriors confront corporate mercenaries on the home front.

Forest Ikwen often live in large huts or hogans, made from pulped and enzymatically-cemented plant material over a frame of megafauna endoskeletons or branches.  As the Ikwen come into conflict with offworld resource-seekers, their hogans often conceal entrances to escape tunnel networks and caches of weaponry.

Also just painted:


Wrecked Adder armored car
15 mm scale

Despite being cheap, fast, and agile, "Adder" combat vehicles are extremely vulnerable to virtually any mid-heavy weapons, from portable railguns to spider mines.

This mangled heap makes for a nice objective or knock-out marker, or just some interesting cover for squishy infantry.  From The Ion Age.

Into the Spider-verse

Mother of Spiders
28 mm scale (~40 mm)

The subterranean world holds many mysteries and terrors... savage driders, huge cavern crawlers, slimes, myconids, and more.  The looming Mother of Spiders is one of the most cryptic.  Rumored to roam the caves, accompanied by a swarm of venomous arachnids, she has been said to lead explorers astray, attack them, or even strike bargains in exchange for tasks or items from the surface.

Added stalagmites and extra spidery goodness... 

The Mother of Spiders is a Bear's Head miniature.

Captain Esmeralda and her crew encounter a terrifying hag as they
search the seaside caverns for Butcher Sutcliff's treasure hoard.